As the world's population continues to grow humans encroach further into wildlife habitat. Wildlife is forced to adapt to living around humans, and, likewise, humans must adapt to living around wildlife. Wildlife and humans are discouraged however from living together. For example, a popular adage is “a fed bear is a dead bear.” Access to full garbage cans by bears or other wildlife is dangerous to both the bears and the humans. A variety of latches have therefore been designed to discourage wildlife from opening a garbage or refuse container. Devices have been designed that simply reconfigure the lid or the handle of a garbage can to lock the can closed (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,214,782; and 4,691,840). Mechanical latches are available for both single household refuse containers or residential garbage carts (U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,583,433; 3,731,964; 5,102,001; and 6,880,717 B1) and multiple household dumpsters (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,222,619; and 5,490,606). Gravity based locking mechanisms have been designed to address the issue of automated garbage pick-up (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,224,744; 5,474,341; and 5,772,264). Many latches are available to lock refuse containers, these latches however are often complicated and not designed to thwart wildlife. A need remains for a latch that is both simple in design and sturdy enough to discourage all animals, including bears.
All patents, patent applications, provisional patent applications and publications referred to or cited herein, are incorporated by reference in their entirety to the extent they are not inconsistent with the explicit teachings of the specification.